Misbah al-Sharia: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked: By what means can one be helped to lower the gaze? He (AS) said: By subduing oneself beneath the sovereignty of Him who is aware of your innermost secret. (Misbah al-Sharia, vol. 1, p. 9)
Imam Sadiq (AS) said: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked: How can one gain mastery over the eye so that it does not look upon what is forbidden? He said: This quality is attained only by contemplating the sovereignty and majesty of God, and by remembering His awareness of your outward and inward states.
Misbah al-Sharia: Ali (AS) said: Seek knowledge even if it be in China — and it is the knowledge of knowing the self, within which lies the knowledge of the Lord, the Mighty and Majestic. (Misbah al-Sharia, vol. 1, p. 13)
Imam Sadiq (AS) relates from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Be in search of knowledge, even if that knowledge be in China. And he said: What is meant is the knowledge of the self, which culminates in the knowledge of the Lord.
Misbah al-Sharia: Ali (AS) said: Patience is to faith as the head is to the body, and the crown of patience is tribulation — and none grasp this but those who act. Whoever does not fulfill the due of patience in tribulation is deprived of fulfilling the due of gratitude in blessings; likewise, whoever does not render the due of gratitude in blessings is deprived of fulfilling the due of patience in tribulation; and whoever is deprived of both is among the outcast. (Misbah al-Sharia, vol. 1, p. 183)
Imam Sadiq (AS) relates from the Commander of the Faithful (AS) that patience is to faith as the head is to the body. Patience comes about only in tribulation, and until a person is afflicted by tribulation, he does not fathom the depth of this matter. Then he said: Whoever is not patient in tribulation is not grateful in blessing either, and whoever is not grateful in blessing is not patient in tribulation; and one who lacks these two virtues is among those cast out from the threshold of the Truth.